HELLO ALL!
Kim and I are new to sailing--we bought our first sailboat 20 months ago and proceeded to see if we could transition from
power to sail----we have been
power boaters all our life and decided that sail is the best way for us to go where we want to go. We are making great progress and have now
sold the "learner"
boat and moved up to something more comfortable and practical. The Coronado 25 c/b taught us a lot with the tiller and quick feedback from sail adjustments. We now have a
wheel, a heavier
boat, and an
engine. During the initial
learning curve we sailed the
ICW and local bays without a motor--we are not purist--but being power boaters all our life we needed to learn how to sail everywhere w/o a
motor to get you back. When we were able to set a
mooring ball and get back to it without having to
anchor just in the general vicinity of the previous
mooring was a great day--then a few months later we went on a 20 mile one way trip spent the night and then back on the
ICW sail only--it was a bit of
work but very satisfying and motivated us to keep going and read and study as much as possible and to sail on even the less desirable days. I told friends the lack of
motor was a highly motivational tool to accelerate sailing knowledge. Now we have moved our sailing over to the Gulf side and now use a motor on the "new to us" boat to clear the bridge and the pass if unfavorable winds and spend all our sailing in the Gulf. Kim loves to say--"is it time to cut the engine"--it always brings a smile to us both. We are building our Gulf experience to make a
passage to south
Florida and on for sabbaticals of several weeks at a time until we can figure a way to really cast off the lines. We have a lot to learn and every sail day we learn something new. We have a lot of experience on the hook away from the
dock but very little experience living underway. We hope to gain as much
dock side sailing experience we can by reading what you guys have already experienced to supplement the hands on stuff we learn by doing--Please be patient with us as newbies to sailing if we ask the "obvious" questions that those of you who have a lifetime of sailing learned long ago.
Thanks to you all in advance.
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions